The Creative Midwife Tip: 3 Reasons It Is Important to Find Your Tribe

In anything you aspire to do professionally or artistically, at some point, you are going to have to learn something from someone, share something with someone or collaborate-- work together-- on something with someone. The way that life works, you can choose people you will initially learn, share and collaborate with or you can begin your journey thinking you will go at it solo. Think you are going to waltz throughout life without having to interact with others? Ha! Life will quickly show you the foolishness of that thought by throwing random people in your path to prove otherwise. I know that for a fact because I was am one of those people who every now and again think that I can conceive it all, build it all and promote it all on my own. Life has shown me that not only is that not true, but, it makes for a very difficult life when holding fast to that unsupported belief.

If you have difficulty relinquishing the control that operating solo allows you, then, you, more than anyone else, would benefit best by finding your tribe. What is a tribe? A tribe is a group of people you resonate with who support you in building your vision and who you support as well. Your tribe consists of people who you can learn from and who you share information and other resources with. Your tribe is who you turn to when you are looking for others to collaborate on projects. I began my brand Liberated Muse in 2008, but not until 2013 did I really find the core people who would be the tribe of folks working together through Liberated Muse.

Building your tribe will take trial and error, it will involve, at some point, engaging with folks who you learn after a moment or two you don't fit well with. It will involve feeling betrayed or confused as to why you are giving and not receiving. But, like all relationships, that is part of the path of moving toward finding the business and/or artistic collaborators who will lead you to feeling supported, listened to and comfortable in sharing resources and giving support.

Here are three reasons it is necessary to find members of your tribe:

You Could Use the Feedback

Having your tribe of supportive and like-minded folks identified gives you a peace of mind you may not have had before. It helps get you out of your head where you are mulling over ideas, and bring things out in the open. Your tribe members listen to your ideas and give you feedback on what your ideas sound like. But, that's not all. If your tribe is really invested in you, they will also give you feedback on what part they could play in helping your vision come to fruition. I give feedback all of the time to members of my tribe who are looking for ways to make next moves in their artistic careers. I listen to those in my tribe who are running through ideas that they may have for a new project. My tribe members listened carefully and gave me great feedback when I conceived and began production of my stage show In Her Words. Our relationship has evolved to where we actually create devised pieces where one person may come up with the idea and everyone has a hand in developing it to make it stage ready. Before,  I went at alone until I got with the tribe that resonated with me.

You May Not Be Able to Use It, But They May

What happens sometimes is that you may be really good with conceiving ideas, but not necessarily interested in activating all of the ideas you conceive. When you are part of a tribe, you share ideas with those trusted folk in your circle because you value them as much as they value you and if anyone were to take hold of one of your throw-away ideas and make something out of it, you want it to be someone you identify as a tribe member. But, it may not always be a throw-away idea. It may be an idea where you want to activate it, but know that you don't have the capacity to lead the project or activity as you like. So you may produce it while someone in your tribe may be the one to run it, be the face of it. This type of arrangement rarely works out well unless the people involved are deeply connected as tribe members who respect each other and the dynamic of their relationship.

They Want You to Be Successful

And, finally, the main reason you want a tribe is because you want to surround yourself and be part of a group of individuals who want to be successful and who want you to be successful, too. In the photo above, you see me surrounded by members of my own tribe who supported me when I was awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist award earlier this year. These women make me feel loved, supported and validated. I would do the same for them. We attend each other's shows, we help spread the word about a show that each of us may be a part of as individuals. We truly wish each other well wishes.

It is surprising how often we stay within friendships, work relationships and organizations attempting to share, collaborate and learn from people who do not wish us the best and who may secretly (or not so secretly) wish for us to fail. This is real. Finding your tribe means being part of a group that wants each member of the group to reach their goals.

It is important you find your tribe, so get to work!

Want to learn how to go about building your tribe? That post will be up next! Be sure to like this post and comment on it. I would love to hear your thoughts.

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Passionately human and deliciously creative, Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman is The Creative Midwife™.  A playwright, poet, singer & emerging filmmaker, Khadijah is founder of Liberated Muse Arts Group, the brand she brought to life in 2008 as an online digital community for artists.

Learn more and book her services today at BirthYourCreativity.com

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